Names, brands, writing, and the language of commerce.

March 13, 2012

Building a Better Tagline: Part 1

Congratulations—you finally have a name for your company/product/organization. Take a bow, but don’t put away the thesaurus just yet.

After the name, the tagline—sometimes called the slogan* (or, if you’re in the UK, the strapline)—is the most visible language in your verbal brand. And yet taglines are too often lazily or hastily slapped together from tired formulas: A Passion for X, X Just Got Better, People Profit Performance (or Performance People Profit).

Worse, some marketing gurus have decreed that because most taglines are bad, no tagline is worth the trouble. That’s simply untrue, and “Just Do It” isn’t the only evidence.

Before I share some tips for building a better tagline—and by “better” I mean “better for your brand”—here’s a reminder of some of the ways in which a tagline can be worth the investment in time, money, and brainpower.

What do these taglines have in common? Not length. Yes, some of the best taglines have just three or four words. But the inspirational Wilton’s tagline is eight words long. And the Folger’s tagline—which has a place of honor on many “best taglines in history” lists—is 11 words long. (Someone—it may have been copywriting guru Herschell Gordon Lewis, although I can’t find the citation—once declared that the Folger’s tagline was the number-one best tagline ever. Lewis’s own tagline, by the way, is “The godfather of direct marketing and gore,” which is pretty darned good, too.)

In fact, it’s impossible to generalize about effective taglines. The good ones draw on a variety of elements and techniques, including:

Parallel contrast. In “We make it easy … you make it amazing,” each half of the tagline is a complete sentence, and both halves follow the same structure: pronoun + make it + adjective. The second half provides the contrast—and the payoff. Other examples of parallel contrast: “Always on. Slightly off” and “Expect more. Pay less.”

Rhyme. When done well, rhyme, as in the famous Modesto slogan or the Folger’s tagline, or near rhyme (Paul Masson’s “We Will Sell No Wine Before Its Time”) aids memorability.

You. Directly or indirectly (through the use of imperative verbs), eight of these 15 taglines bring “you”—the customer—into the message. Much better than talking only about “us.”

Positive ambiguity. Sometimes a double meaning is a singular distinction. Consider the double meanings of “on” and “off” in IFC’s tagline, or the two ways in which you can interpret “Love life again.” Caveat: When venturing into ambiguity, make sure all the potential meanings are positive and relevant.

Encouragement. “Slogan” comes from a Gaelic expression meaning “war cry,” and that etymology still resonates: many effective brand slogans rally the troops. “Screw it. Let’s ride” not only issues a challenge, it’s also perfectly consistent with Harley-Davidson’s independent, outlaw-y image. “Do something creative every day” adds a time element to the imperative.